When the Anglicans planted Scots-Irish in “plantations” to oppose Roman Catholicism in the late 1600s, and later the poverty and religious persecution drove many to settle in the colonies, Presbyters such as John Knox preaching Calvinist sermons were well received in America.
Knox’s biographer, Jasper Ridley, wrote, “Knox is one of the most ruthless and successful revolutionary leaders in history. . . . Dictators ancient and modern have killed their opponents whenever they considered that this was expedient. Revolutionary mobs have killed oppressors out of a desire for vengeance and justice. But Knox and his Puritans are the only modern revolutionaries who proclaimed that it was sinful not to kill their enemies.” Knox thought the Catholic Church was the instrument of the devil.
All the colonies had fallen under many orders from England, which was Anglican, to worship God, explicitly as known to the Anglican Church. Those who rebelled or even spoke against such were generally labeled as criminal and subject to capital punishment.
Since so many other denominations were being encouraged to colonize the Americas from England, so also came a varied set of perspectives on Separation of Church and State.
The Maryland Toleration Act of 1649 mandated toleration amongst Trinitarian Churches, but also mandated death to those who denied Christ. It had been considered a principal political action promoting the Separation of Church and State.
Americans today, fail to realize nations 300 years ago, defined themselves, their State, with their Church, and would and could face the death penalty if they didn’t remain loyal to the Church of the State. The Separation of Church and State never removed Christ nor Christianity from the State, but simply tolerated different Churches within the State.
But today, all that demand “separation of church and state” do so to remove Christ.